Harry Palmer is the fictional secret agent protagonist of three films based on spy novels written by Len Deighton. The Protagonist or main character is the central figure of a story. The Genre of spy fiction —sometimes called political thriller or spy thriller or sometimes shortened simply to Spy-fi —arose before Leonard Cyril Deighton (born February 18, 1929, Marylebone, London) is a British Historian, Cookery expert Michael Caine was Harry Palmer in films based on three of the first four of the published novels featuring that protagonist. Sir Maurice Joseph Micklewhite Jr, CBE (born 14 March 1933 better known by his screen name Michael Caine, is an Oscar - and BAFTA

Novels

Len Deighton introduced "Harry Palmer" in The IPCRESS File (1962), his first published novel, however, in that first-person novel, the secret agent is anonymous, and never named by others. The IPCRESS File was the first Spy novel by Len Deighton, published in 1962 See also First person First-person narrative is a Narrative mode in which a Story is narrated by one character, who explicitly Further novels featuring this character are:

• Horse Under Water (1963)
• Funeral in Berlin (1964)
• Billion Dollar Brain (1966)
• Spy Story (1974)
• Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Spy (1976) [Catch A Falling Spy in U. Horse Under Water (1963 ISBN 0-399-10419-4 is the second of Len Deighton 's Spy novels featuring an anonymous British agent protagonist (named Funeral in Berlin is a Spy novel by Len Deighton. The subject of the novel — arranging a Soviet scientist's defection — is dated but the characters Billion Dollar Brain is a 1967 Ken Russell film based on the novel Billion-Dollar Brain S. A. ]

As the protagonist is anonymous in these novels, it is disputed whether or not Harry Palmer narrates the last two novels. Deighton said the Spy Story narrator is not the man in The IPCRESS File; for most of Spy Story, the narrator is named and addressed as 'Patrick Armstrong' — although, as another character says, "We have so many different names". Despite this, all these novels have been unofficially titled the Harry Palmer novels, based on the protagonist's name in the film adaptations of The IPCRESS File, Funeral in Berlin, and Billion Dollar Brain.

Encouraging the unitary concept — that each novel features Harry Palmer — is the 1974 dust jacket to the Harcourt, Brace & Jovanovich American edition of Spy Story, the blurb is: "He is back, after five long-years' absence, the insubordinate, decent, bespectacled English spy who fought, fumbled, and survived his outrageous way through the best-selling Horse Under Water, Funeral in Berlin, and the rest of those marvellous, celebrated Len Deighton spy thrillers". Likewise, on the 1976 edition dust jacket to Catch a Falling Spy, the novel features "Deighton's familiar hero, our bespectacled Englishman". Moreover, some characters from Yesterday's Spy (1975) earlier appeared in Spy Story (1974), although "Harry Palmer" is not amongst them.

It is theorised that the protagonist in another of Deighton's spy novels, An Expensive Place to Die (1967), also in the first-person-anonymous narrative, is "Harry Palmer", however, differences in characterisation and plotting indicate someone else, another spy not Palmer. An Expensive Place to Die is a 1967 novel by Len Deighton. It is set initially in Paris and takes its title from an Oscar Wilde quotation about

Origin of the Name

On-set during filming of The IPCRESS File, Len Deighton teaches Michael Caine how to break an egg. The IPCRESS File was the first Spy novel by Len Deighton, published in 1962 [1]

The IPCRESS File was published in November of 1962, soon after the release of Dr. No (the first James Bond film). Dr No (1962 is the first Film in the James Bond series, and the first to star Sean Connery as British Secret Service agent Unlike Ian Fleming's spy, Len Deighton's spy is hindered by bureaucracy, wears eye glasses, shops in supermarkets, lives in a back street flat, and seedy hotels, and needs a pay rise. Ian Lancaster Fleming ( May 28, 1908 – August 12, 1964) was a British author, Journalist and Second World War Bureaucracy is the structure and set of regulations in place to control activity usually in large organizations and government Glasses, also called eyeglasses or spectacles, are frames bearing lenses worn in front of the Eyes normally for vision correction, Customer divider barjpg|thumb|In supermarkets sellers periodically change prices for classes of goods in response to market conditions rather than negotiating the price of each good In the film version, Harry Palmer is a lowly army sergeant forcibly drafted to secret work, first for Army Intelligence, then Foreign Office, to work away a prison sentence for black marketing. Sergeant is a rank used in some form by most militaries police forces and other uniformed organizations around the world The Intelligence Corps (also known as Int Corps) is one of the Corps of the British Army. The Foreign and Commonwealth Office, commonly called the Foreign Office or the FCO, is the British government department responsible for promoting Harry Palmer has much in common with Len Deighton, including passions for cooking and classical music. Cooking is the process of preparing Food by applying Heat, selecting measuring and combining of ingredients in an ordered procedure for producing safe and edible

When The IPCRESS File sold well, EON producers Harry Saltzman and Albert Broccoli approached Deighton to write the script for the next 007 film, From Russia With Love (1963), however, despite Deighton's efforts, little of his screenplay was filmed. A film producer is a person who creates the conditions for making movies. Harry Saltzman ( October 27 1915 - September 28 1994) was a theatre and Film producer best known for his mega-gamble which resulted Albert Romolo Broccoli, CBE (Hon ( April 5 1909 &ndash June 27 1996) nicknamed "Cubby" was an American From Russia with Love, released in 1963 is the second Film in the James Bond series, and the second to star Sean Connery as See also Pre-production Screenwriting A screenplay or script is a written plan authored by a Screenwriter, for a Film or Television Saltzman, instead, decided to use The IPCRESS File, and its sequels, as the beginning of a new, secret agent movie series. The IPCRESS File was designed to have a style different from the James Bond movies, although Saltzman employed many Bond movie staff, including production designer Ken Adam, editor Peter Hunt, and composer John Barry; eventually, Michael Caine was chosen to protagonise Harry Palmer. John Barry, OBE (born John Barry Prendergast on 3 November 1933 in York, England) is a renowned Golden Globe and five-time Academy

Needing to name the previously-anonymous secret agent, the production team chose "Harry Palmer", because they wanted a dull, unglamorous name to distance him from James Bond — the prevalent stereotype: a flamboyant, swashbuckling secret agent. In his memoirs, Michael Caine says producer Harry Saltzman thought up the surname "Palmer", and Caine innocently remarked that "Harry" was a dull name, realising his gaffe on seeing Saltzman's stare. Another origin story is that in a Len Feldman interview, Caine recalled "I made a rather bad social blunder, because, he said, 'What's the dullest name you can think of ?', and I said, 'Harry', and he said, 'Thanks very much. ' And then he said, 'What's a dull surname ?', and the most boring boy in our school was called: 'Palmer', 'Tommy Palmer'. So, he said, 'All right, we'll call him Harry Palmer. ' "

In chapter five of the the first novel, The IPCRESS File, the anonymous narrator says: "My name isn't Harry, but in this business it's hard to remember whether it ever had been. "

Films

After the release of The IPCRESS File in 1965, Saltzman's production company made Funeral in Berlin (1966), and Billion Dollar Brain (1967), both protagonised by Michael Caine. The Ipcress File is a 1965 film adaptation of Len Deighton 's 1962 novel The IPCRESS File. Funeral in Berlin is a 1966 film based on the spy novel by Len Deighton. Billion Dollar Brain is a 1967 Ken Russell film based on the novel Billion-Dollar Brain The second Harry Palmer novel, Horse Under Water, was not used, rumour is, had the film series continued, then, it would have been the next novel adapted to film. Horse Under Water (1963 ISBN 0-399-10419-4 is the second of Len Deighton 's Spy novels featuring an anonymous British agent protagonist (named In 1976, the Harry Palmer novel, Spy Story, was filmed, with Michael Petrovitch as 'Patrick Armstrong', yet is unrelated to Saltzman's Harry Palmer films. In the mid-1990s, there appeared two, original screenplay Harry Palmer films, featuring Michael Caine:

• Bullet to Beijing (1995)
• Midnight in St Petersburg (1996)

Despite sometimes being titled Len Deighton's Bullet to Beijing and Len Deighton's Midnight in St Petersburg, author Len Deighton did not participate in these films. Bullet to Beijing is a 1995 Made-for-television movie that continues the adventures of the fictional spy Harry Palmer who appeared Evidence of Michael Caine's popular identification as Harry Palmer is in Blue Ice (1992), wherein the hero is an ex-spy named 'Harry', who is much like Harry Palmer. In Austin Powers in Goldmember (2002), Caine's portrayal of Nigel Powers, father of secret agent Austin Powers, spoofs Harry Palmer. Austin Powers in Goldmember is the third Film of the Austin Powers series starring Mike Myers in the title role. Nigel Powers (played by Michael Caine) is the father of Austin Powers and Dr A parody (ˈpɛɹədiː US, [ˈpaɹədiː] UK) in contemporary usage is a work created to mock comment on or poke fun at an original work its subject

External links

• Kees Stam's Harry Palmer movie site